We “finished” and the launch came and went. We were not making as much money as we thought we would. We weren’t even getting as many signups as we anticipated. People demanded grandiose features we didn’t have the time to implement. Our cash reserves were running low and we soon needed to return to consulting. Which was always part of the plan, but I had hoped we’d be optimistic about FamSpam’s future when that time came. We were not.

keynote from Startup Riot 2009, about how to become successful - do what you want!

Text of Chris Wanstrath's from Github's keynote at Startup Riot 2009

the most amazing features imaginable would make us money. We had no data available on whether building features specifically to make money would work.

You’ve taken some hits. Being taken apart by the execs because they could smell you weren’t prepared. The slide deck you loved that the audience ignored. That guy… snoring. In the front row.
However, you’ve also hit it out of the park. The unexpected standing ovation. That seven-slide deck that turned into an hour of ad-libbed brilliance. The moment you know you’ve deeply connected with your audience.
Admit it, you’ve got some presentation-fu.

"Enter Keynote Tweet, a simple open-source script that provides the capacity to participate in the backchannel by combining Twitter with Apple Keynote. All you have to do is add text wrapped in [twitter] and [/twitter] tags in the presenter notes section of a slide. When that slide comes up in the presentation the script grabs that text and sends it to Twitter on your behalf."

As a self confirmed conference junkie I speak at a dozen events each year, and attend many more. As such I’ve probably seen close to a thousand talks over the last five years. Because of this I’ve got a pretty good idea what makes for an exciting talk and how you can guarantee your session will suck.
As somebody who also organises two conferences, UX London and dConstruct I’m really keen on getting new talent into the speaking circuit while still maintaining quality. As such I’ve put together a quick guide to help both new and experienced speakers kick arse/ass.
Most of these tips aren’t new, but you’ll be surprised how few people actually follow them. However if you do, you’ll be well on your way to being the next Jeff Veen, Jared Spool or Jason Santa Maria.

I’m giving my presentation next week and will talk about CSS3 transforms and transitions. Obviously, I will be providing a lot of code samples and examples, so if I were to use Keynote, I would be going back and forth between the browser and Keynote. Yeah, no thanks.
So, I wrote this small jQuery plugin that gives you an interface in a browser to give a presentation. If you are getting antsy, take a look at a demo or download it from github.

“Our networks in here are always unpredictable, so...I have no idea what we're going to find,” he said. “They are slow today.”
What Jobs did next, according to Carmine Gallo, author of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, was vintage Jobs (and a model for how presenters should deal with stage crises): He did not panic. He did not look hot under the collar of his trademark turtleneck. His hours of practice and intimate knowledge of every inch of every slide made him comfortable enough so that he could jump around to another part of the presentation (in this case, to look at photos).

How long does it take to go from idea to prototype that you can test with potential customers? A month? A week? Few days? How about 30 minutes?What if you can move from idea to prototype at the speed of thoughts, without using any special wirefra

A quick guide to using Apple keynote for rapid prototyping of iPad applications, which can be tested directly on the iPad in 30 minutes or less. No code! FREE template included.